The Price of Humanity - Legalese

An eye for an eye...a tooth for a tooth.

Where's the practicality in that?

Theodore Kazynski just pled guilty to 13 Federal counts against him. He was afraid his lawyers would be allowed to plead insanity.

You know what?

Of course he was insane.

Anyone who kills for any reason other than self-defense is, by definition, insane. Possibly even those in self-defense.

But should that be an excuse? BZZZZ! Survey says...

We pour money into our judicial system. Would I prefer a middle eastern system without trial by jury, or perhaps amputation? Not a chance. But just because it's better than some choices, that doesn't mean it ain't broke.

What kind of concept is a death penalty? What penalty is that? There is no repayment to society, to individual...there is only release from responsibility.

An eye for an eye does me no good...if you take my eye, giving one of yours, unless it can be implanted in me and made to function again, is no adequate reparation.

An eye for a lifetime of your salary. For years of back breaking labor.

Earn your food, earn your shelter, earn your clothes. Good ole Ted's gonna live the high life now, with life without parole. No more hovel in the woods for him...now it's three squares in a cell.

Mind you, humanity's investment can't simply be a sweeping change in the penalty structure: It must include changes in the penal system itself. Prisons must be humane, to a point.

Penalties should be marked in dollar figures. And prisoners should work at fixed rates to pay off the debts. Time is not payment. Sweat off your brow is. Make license plates or sew jeans, learn a trade, I don't care. But 75 cents on the dollar you "earn" goes to your victims' relief funds.

And you will get an education. If you refuse to attend, your pay will be docked.

And you will receive counseling, because you display an inability to function within reasonable bounds of society's mores.

If an imprisoned worker doesn't work the hours required to earn his weekly food, he should be given minimal rations -- living rations, but nothing more. Prisoners' economies should run parallel to the outside world. Overtime work pays off your debt faster. Steady work and you can "spend" some of it on better food, better clothes. Meanwhile, you will be charged room, board, and utilities. Want to watch TV? See a movie? Earn the money for it. Just like the rest of the world.

Live and learn...